It's A Beautiful Day For Baseball So Let's Play Two!

This week we decided to head down to Chicago for a pair of Cubs games at the Friendly Confines. We loaded up the SUV with Janna, Stuart and my Mother and took off for the Windy City.
On Thursday Janna and I went to Wrigley to see the Cubs play the Cincinnati Reds. We sat in the bleachers, which is always quite interesting. We see above our loser pitcher Ted Lilly warming up before the game.
The Bleachers are always interesting out at Wrigley. One has to arrive well before gates open so that a good seat can be secured. We stood behind a group of 20 somethings with their high school friends. This group befriended a homeless man named Mississippi Mike, they gave him beer, cigarettes and money. But that's not the best part, one of these kids told him he should get a job out in the suburbs. Why he knew of a good place where he could operate heavy machinery, make good money and even get good insurance benefits, even dental coverage. Our homeless friends said he couldn't be hired because he has a felony on his record, big surprise eh? Leave it to a bunch of drunk kids to tell a homeless man to get a job with good insurance benefits.
This is the view of Chicago from our room at Hotel 71. Quite a view eh? The Cubs lost the game so we drowned our sorrows away in Italian food at Osteria Via Stato. The food was excellent, especially my chocolate creme brulee. I highly recommend the Italian dinner feast, which is very reasonable in price.
Friday we headed out to Wrigleyville again, this time the whole group came. He had lunch at a place out by the ballpark called Goose Island, another recommended place. I had their Stilton burger, which I will try to replicate at home over and over again.
Nothing says exciting like taking a boy to a baseball game, though in this shot Stuart looks half asleep. I can assure you, he hardly slept at all. Stuart's very interested in looking at all the people and making new friends.
As you can see we had pretty good seats for Friday's game against Pittsburgh. A few more random shots from the game:

What father wouldn't be excited about taking his son to a baseball game? Friday was Stuart's third game. You will recall that he went to a Cubs game last year when he was five weeks old and a Tigers game at three months. He'll be attending a couple of Tiger games this year, including the day before his birthday when the Tigers play that other team that wears pinstripes.
After the game on Friday we went to one of our favorite Chicago French restaurants, Brassarie Jo. The food was excellent as always. Stuart behaved himself perfectly once again, as he did throughout the entire weekend. Being 11 months old we were worried that he might have a meltdown at some point, which would be understandable considering that he was completely off schedule. As it turns out he rarely cried at all and the worst of it was reserved for the 2-3 minutes before he fell asleep each night in his play pen. In other words, he behaved himself beyond all reasonable expectation and his parents were well pleased and his grandmother was highly impressed. We were greatly blessed by the Lord this weekend.

Timber!

We woke up at 3:30 Wednesday morning to a loud thud. It sounded as though someone was trying to break into the house, although I later opined that such a criminal would have to be a complete idiot. After all, wouldn't a criminal want to make a little less noise? In any event, we discovered that a branch from our neighbors tree had fallen into our yard. As you can see, the branch is as big as a tree.
This is the tree that the branch fell off of. How our neighbor is going to remove the tree itself is beyond me. We were pleased that my in-laws knew someone who cut down our branch and hauled it away for free. Apparently they have some sort of wood burning furnace or something, in any event they seemed pleased with the free wood.
As you can see, the branch extends well into our neighbors yard. Seamus and Deirbhile were of course very interested. We're certainly thankful that the branch didn't fall down during the day. One of the dogs could have been killed or worse our neighbors could have been working in their back yard and been killed. God has blessed us here indeed.

What A Mess

Friday we got to go to our first Tigers game of the year. As you can see, Janna is all decked out in her Tigers outfit.
It was 40 degrees when the game started and warmed up to a balmy 41. The Tigers played like garbage and we have Jason Grilli to thank for the loss. I'm the first on the fire Jim Leyland bandwagon, he's done a terrible job managing his bullpen so far this season.
While we were away Stuart and Seamus got into some trouble. As you can see, they both have a guilty look on their face and as can be expected they both deny everything.
Stuart has found it a good idea to take all of his clothes out of his dresser drawer. He grabs one piece and throws it over his shoulder, before it lands he's got his little hands on something else.
Seamus finds this all wildly amusing. He especially enjoyed playing peekaboo with Stuart. Stuart holds a piece of clothing over his face then rips it away. Normally he does this with us, in which case he gets a reaction of some sort. With Seamus, he gets a big fuzzy nose in the face. I'm not sure which Stuart likes better, I'm thinking the nose.
As you can see, the destruction is great. Clothes are everywhere, Stuart's and Seamus's never clean up their amusements it seems. Now if you'll excuse me, some clothes need to be put back in their drawer.

To The Beach House One And All!

We returned to my folks beach house this weekend, a day earlier than expected. I had a dep to cover in nearby Baldwin, which meant we had to come up Thursday in a scramble instead of Friday at a leisurely pace.
Stuart had fun looking at all the different things at my folks house.
Stuart was not a big fan of being cut off from the stairs, it seems he's much interested in going up and down them.
Stuart also found Zoe's toys. I really don't care that he plays with her toys, I figure he plays with our dogs toys and they lick him, a third dogs mouth can't be that bad.
Stuart especially enjoyed looking out at the lake in the living room. So much fun he had. And here he is trying to climb up the steps. This is going to be a battle. :)
On Saturday we prepared a turkey for dinner. I am a huge turkey fan. We didn't make our world famous brined turkey, instead we made a simple roast turkey. As you can see, Janna is massaging herb butter all over the breasts.
And here she is cooked, not really that good looking if you ask me. But it tasted good, along with a sage gravy.
Stuart really enjoyed looking out at the lake, when he gets a little older he'll love swimming in it I'm sure.
The weekend wouldn't be complete without Seamus and Deirbhile. The two of them had a grand time running around the place. On the way up, Deirbhile decided to plant herself in Stuart's lap and he couldn't have been happier to have her there. Stuart loves his dogs.
The lake has more or less melted, though snow and ice remain on the beach. So that meant unless we were going to polar bear it, there was no swimming.
As always we saw a few deer. Needless to say, Seamus and Deirbhile went bananas when these big dogs showed up.
Not much of a sunset but I thought this shot was nice enough.
And thus ends another weekend up north. We are blessed to be able to go somewhere so nice. It was a great, relaxing weekend after a long and busy week. God has blessed us greatly with His beautiful creation.

Stuart Climbs Stairs

Stuart has learned to climb the stairs. On one hand I'm glad that he's getting mobile, on the other hand the stairs aren't exactly the place for a 10 month old to play.
This picture is terrible. In any event, last week Janna ran upstairs to put a load of laundry in our room. As soon as she put it in our room she came back out to discover that Stuart had already climbed up three stairs. Fun times, fun times.

Of First Words And Big Birds

Stuart will turn ten months tomorrow. Lately we've been trying to teach him to say 'daddy.' He's said it two times so far, though I'm not sure it was intentional and I'm fairly certain he has no idea what it means. Did he say his first word? I don't know, you be the judge.
I don't know if Stuart has said a word yet but he appears to be quite interested in reading. Here he is attempting to read something or other. We make sure to read to him everyday, Janna has a whole bedtime routine with him that involves some sort of bedtime book. Of course, we always make sure to read scripture to young Stuart.
Seamus is so proud of Mr. Stuart, what with his almost speaking and attempts at reading. Seamus is so excited that his little friend is growing up.
Here the whole family sits to watch the Wings game. Hockey is a favorite sport in the family, as you can see. I've turned Janna into a football fan and yes I've also turned her into a hockey fan. If there's a fight, she's very excited. You can see here that Stuart is also watching the game, he especially enjoys going to Griffins games. Seamus is also watching, though football is his favorite sport to watch on TV.
What family post wouldn't be complete without our Deirbhile? Mistress Deirbhile is very excited about the warmer weather. But what does she looks very nervous in this picture. I wonder what she sees or hears?
She sees or hears this bird sitting in the neighbors tree just a few feet from our house. I don't have the slightest idea what kind of bird this is, though it isn't the run of the mill sparrow that we're accustomed to seeing at the house.
I don't think this bird is big enough to take out Deirbhile but it's enough to get her all excited. Does anyone have the slightest idea what kind of bird this is? I sure don't.

Phone Calls, Toys and Flowers! Oh My!

I came home this afternoon to discover that my wife was yammering away on the phone. I'll tell ya, prying a woman away from a phone is like trying to a brownie out of their hands. I have the scratch marks to prove it. At least Stuart looks excited to see me.
But Stuart is very upset because Mommy's been on the phone all day long. He told me she's been on the phone at least six hours today. For shame!
Deirbhile and Seamus confirm the story, though they're much more interested in coming inside for a visit. Of course, I have to let my little guys in to play with Stuart.
Stuart of course loves the dogs and is thrilled to see them. Seamus is off in the background, I can assure you that Deirbhile is doing something very interesting off camera.
And here the little mischief maker is, no doubt she's been up to no good. She's in desperate need of a grooming. We've been waiting for it to warm up a little more before we take her to the groomers for the first time. I'm thinking end of the month.
The battle for toys is well on it's way to being an epic struggle this summer. Seamus seems to enjoy taking Stuart's stuffed animals and puzzles, Deirbhile likes to take anything of Stuart's she can chew on. In retaliation you can see Stuart likes to grab the dogs bones.
Stuart is very proud of himself, taking the bone and all. He's a very smart little boy, he knows just what will drive the puppies crazy.
In other news, Janna got herself some flowers the other day. I wonder who could have gotten them for her? Maybe she has a secret admirer that I don't know about.